Skip to main content

Texas receives national transportation award

ITS America has awarded the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TxDMV) and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) a Smart Solution Spotlight Award for a new web-based tool that allows truck owners to self-issue the permits and routes they need to move oversize and overweight loads on the state’s highway system. The Smart Solution Spotlight award is made to companies and organisations that use innovative technology to create a safer, cleaner, more efficient and sustainable transportation system. The
September 6, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
560 ITS America has awarded the 6524 Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TxDMV) and the 375 Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) a Smart Solution Spotlight Award for a new web-based tool that allows truck owners to self-issue the permits and routes they need to move oversize and overweight loads on the state’s highway system.

The Smart Solution Spotlight award is made to companies and organisations that use innovative technology to create a safer, cleaner, more efficient and sustainable transportation system.

The Texas Permitting and Routing Optimization System (TxPros) earned the award in recognition of its use of “smart” technology to improve service, save time and resources and keep loads and motorists safe.

Trucks carrying loads that are taller, longer, wider or heavier than legal limits must get a permit and, for many loads, a route from the TxDMV that avoids obstacles such as low overpasses, or bridges and roads that could be damaged by the load. TxPros is the first system to generate a route in real time using GIS, along with a map and turn-by-turn driving instructions, customised to the size and weight of the load.

TxPros allows trucking companies to apply for oversize/overweight permits, pay the fees, and route their trucks on the best roads for a load’s size and weight, all online, 24/7. The system is said to be the first of its kind in the US and so easy to use that customers have self-issued more than half of all permits since its launch in August 2011.

Related Content

  • August 30, 2013
    Smart technology keeps infrastructure operating safely
    US Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are using smart technology to warn civil engineers when something is wrong with the infrastructure, says the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Association (AASHTO). Sensors installed on bridges, in roadways, and on maintenance vehicles are communicating real-time performance and weather data, allowing engineers to solve problems before they occur. "Most people look at a road or a bridge and never realise the technology that today's modern tra
  • March 18, 2014
    Wider uses for weigh in motion data
    Colin Sowman talks to Terry Bergan of International Road Dynamics about the latest uses of weigh-in-motion systems. Raising allowable truck weight limits improve transport efficiency but leaves an ever-increasing number of bridges vulnerable to being overloaded and damaged by vehicles heavier, and in some cases far heavier, than they were designed to carry. The simplistic solution is to impose weight restrictions and erect appropriate signs - but this could have severe knock-on effect on trucking operations
  • March 24, 2015
    Texas goes public on habitual toll violators
    Andrew Bardin Williams considers the effect of the ‘Name and Shame’ strategy adopted in Texas to encourage serial toll violators to pay up. It’s a tough time to be a scofflaw in the Lone Star State. Habitual toll violators - some with tens of thousands of unpaid tolls and fees - are being publically shamed into squaring their accounts with US toll agencies. In November 2013 the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) starting publishing a list of the state’s most egregious toll violators on its website.
  • March 17, 2015
    The weighty problem of truck routing enforcement
    The growing impact of heavy commercial vehicles on urban and interurban highway infrastructures around the world is driving the need for reliable route access restriction and monitoring. The support role of enforcement is proving fertile ground for ITS development. Bridges are especially vulnerable – and critical in terms of travel delays. The US state of Oregon’s Department of Transportation (ODOT) operates what it claims is one of the country’s most aggressive truck route restriction enforcement programme